Instant messaging services provide a well known mechanism for allowing computer users to communicate online for example by sending a message or chatting with another user. Such services are typically provided by AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and other similar service providers. Certain data associated with a user of such instant messaging services is known as presence information. Presence information typically consists of one or more presence tuples, which represent the status, an optional activity address, and other information relating to the user. The status of the user can simply be open or closed, when the computer system will or will not accept instant messages for the user. Other examples of the status of the user can include “online”, “away from my desk”, “stepped out”, or “on the phone”. Based on the status of a user, other users may decide whether to initiate activities with the user. Contact information can include contact addresses such as email address, ftp addresses, or postal addresses. More information on instant messaging and presence information can be found in Request for Comment (RFC) 2778, RFC 2779, and Jabber Enhancement Proposal (JEP 0119).
As part of instant messaging services, a conventional friends list is often supported. Such a conventional friends list provides a user with presence information related to other entities (e.g. other users of the instant messaging service) who are associated with the user. More specifically, status information for the “friends” is provided in the friends list. For example, while a user is online, the conventional friends list is typically displayed in a window on the user's display. Using the friends list, a user can determine whether to send a message to an entity on the friends list. For example, if a particular friend's status is “busy” or “away from my desk,” the user may opt not to attempt to start a chat session with that particular friend.
Moreover, instant messaging allows limited association between the actions that a user is taking and the status of the user. More particularly, some conventional instant messaging applications that reside on the device have internet radios incorporated into the application. When a user plays the radio, the conventional instant messaging application notes that the internal radio is being used and alters the user's status, for example to “busy”. Similarly, some conventional instant messaging applications take note of activity on a keyboard for the device. The instant messaging application monitors the activity on the keyboard for the device on which the instant messaging application resides. If the keyboard is not used for a period of time the instant messaging application may change the user's status to “idle”.
Although conventional instant messaging services and conventional friends lists are useful, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there are significant drawbacks to such conventional instant messaging services. In particular, there is no requirement that another instant messaging user respect the status of another user. For example, suppose a first user has a friends list including a second user. The second user's status is listed as “busy” or “away from my desk”. However, the first user may still attempt to communicate with the second user, for example by calling or initiating a chat session. The second user will still receive the call or the message indicating that the first user has initiated a communication. The second user may, therefore, still be distracted by the communication. Such distractions may be annoying or, in the case where the second user is engaged in an activity such as driving a car, even dangerous. Furthermore, a user may forget to change their status when engaging in an activity, including activities involving other devices. For example, a user may be on the phone, driving a car, or otherwise busy, but forget to change their status to “busy”. As a result, others having access to the user's status may not realize that the user is busy and attempt to contact the user. Again, the communication may prove to be distracting, annoying, and even dangerous. Thus, despite the use of presence information, there are drawbacks to conventional instant messaging services.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for improving communications between instant messaging service users based upon the status information. The present invention addresses such a need.